In a scene from the documentary Gasland, a man holds a lighter to water flowing out of the faucet of a sink in what appears to be his kitchen. After a few moments, the lighter’s flame bursts into a large blackish yellow cloud. For obvious reasons, a sign posted above the sink reads “Do Not Drink This Water.” It was no coincidence that the man’s home was located within close proximity to a hydraulic fracturing well, for a correlation between fracking and contaminated drinking water exists.

Hydraulic fracturing essentially “describes the recovery of natural gas from deep layers inside the Earth” (Kurzgesagt). To delve into specifics, the process is begun by locating an underground tight-rock formation typically composed of shale. Once the site is established, the layer is tapped by drilling several miles beneath the ground directly into the formation. From there, a horizontal hole is bore into the petroleum-bearing rock. The hole is injected at high pressures with fracking fluid, a cocktail of water, sand, and a myriad of chemicals. Up to five hundred ninety-six chemicals are often used at once to compress the water, kill off bacteria, or dissolve minerals. This mixture “fractures” the rock, producing innumerable fissures in the rock through which the oil and natural gas escape. The “trapped” petroleum is now free to be swiftly extracted. The well is fracked upwards of eighteen times until it is depleted, at which point the used fracking fluid is either reused, treated and released back into the environment, or pumped back into the ground and stored in injection wells.

However, because not all fracking fluid is recovered or disposed of correctly, the wastewater is liable of seeping up into the aquifer. Highly hazardous substances like benzene, formic acid, and boric acid could enter and contaminate our water supply. Exposure to many of these chemicals would be seriously detrimental to our health. A 2011 study in the journal, Human and Ecological Risk Assessment, generated a list of six hundred thirty-two known chemicals and analyzed their effects on human health. The article revealed that “seventy-five percent of the chemicals could affect [several] sensory organs, respiratory system, and gastrointestinal system” (Human and Ecological Risk Assessment). About half were shown to harm the nervous, immune, and cardiovascular systems, and a full quarter were carcinogenic and mutagenic. As aforementioned, these toxins that inundate the water in our homes could become fuel, waiting to be unexpectedly ignited. We should not need to worry about our water harming our loved ones and ourselves.